There is all this talk about impeaching Mr. Trump because of his alleged high crimes. But Minority Leader of the House Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to fire that cannon even though the call for impeachment is getting louder and louder among her compatriots.

Pelosi has implied numerous reasons for avoiding impeachment but the one obvious and unspoken problem is that the Vice President appears to be as nutty if not nuttier than Trump. Removal of President Trump will, by constitutional law, put Mr. Pence in the Presidency. Both men appear to be oblivious to the looming horrors from our heating planet and unwilling to do anything to stop their world-wide quest for more oil and gas. It appears to be that very quest that is triggering our current conflict with Iran that may evolve into all-out war if we are not careful. Mr. Pence has been openly relying on his religious convictions . . . calling for a return of his Savior Jesus in the clouds . . . to save the day.

Older Americans who were around when Congress brought impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinski scandal understand that impeachment does not always result in the removal of the President. Impeachment is actually a trial before the full house and a sitting president may not necessarily lose his elected government seat.

There is, however, another legal way for Congress to remove a wayward President. This involves invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution in the event that the President is showing dangerous signs of mental illness. And there are a number of professional clinicians who are expressing serious concern these days about Mr. Trump’s mental health.

“Frightened by the President's hubris, narcissism, defensiveness, belief in untrue things, conspiratorial reflexiveness and attacks on opponents, mental health professionals are finally speaking out. The goal is not merely to define the Madness of King Donald, but to warn the public where it will inevitably lead, one writer recently said of Trump.

And Jerry Bowles, in an opinion piece for Huffington Post, wrote of Pence: “He is an unapologetic evangelical social conservative who sees the last 40 years of progress on abortion, gay rights, civil rights, criminal justice reform and race relations as a disaster for the country. Donald Trump might blow up the world, but Mike Pence would set the clock back to 1954. It’s hard to say which would be worse.”

Indeed, when you look at the Pence alternative, we can understand why Pelosi is having trouble dealing with the call for impeachment.